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JBSA News
NEWS | Aug. 13, 2020

Randolph High School Girl Scout earns prestigious award

By Airman 1st Class Tyler McQuiston 502nd Air Base Wing Public Affairs

An intuitive mind and community involvement can touch many lives. With a vision, hard work, and determination anything is possible.

For Madison Wright, her vision was to relieve the stress children can face when visiting the emergency room. For realizing her vision, Madison recently earned the organization's prestigious Gold Award, which is presented to fewer than 6 percent of Girl Scouts annually.  

A 2020 graduate of Randolph High School, Madison joined the Girl Scouts of Southwest Texas 10 years ago. Growing up, she enjoyed being with friends and participating in extracurricular activities.

Madison’s parents decided that the Girl Scouts were a good fit for her. Throughout her time in the Girl Scouts, she has learned the quality of leadership responsibility and how to facilitate a final project.

“Ever since Madison was really young, she seemed like the adventurous type of kid,” said her father, Jon Wright.

To be eligible for the award, Girl Scouts must spend one to two years creating a final project that consists of a few steps.

First, a Girl Scout must identify an issue within her community, and then investigate the issue and search to find support. During this time they also create a plan and present it to their leadership and fellow scouts.

Lastly, they take action and aim to educate people on the issue. Completing a community service project with a mandatory minimum of 80 hours and submitting a final report are also requirements for the final project.

The project Madison conducted was titled “Trinkets for Tykes,” and was focused on comforting children who visit the Schertz-Cibolo Emergency Clinic by creating toy packages for them to enjoy.

A trip to the ER can be a traumatic experience for anyone and especially for young children. Madison had heard about children who had trips to the emergency room from her mother and knew she wanted to help.

“My mother is a nurse, and she would share with me the concern that young children faced traumatic times visiting the emergency room,” Madison said. “I studied what items I should order to put in bags to occupy the attention of young children.”

She correlated with her religious leader, Terese Gould from the Randolph Chapel, to secure the funds needed for care packages as well as the help of the Randolph Chapel’s middle school youth to organize and fill packages. She also conducted meetings for planning and packaging. 

“I separated toys and crafts so the Randolph Chapel middle school youth could help me fill bags up with toys,” Madison said. “I’m very proud of myself and the youth that helped. It’s an amazing feeling to do something great for my community.”

“Seeing Madison grow through this time has made me very proud of her accomplishment and her involvement,” her father said. “Her final project was independent, so her mother and I could only do so much. She took on the majority of the responsibility.”

Madison’s senior year was full of core classwork, her final project and extracurricular activities. Some of those activities included Junior ROTC, National Honor Society, STEM and sports. She also taught a Sunday school class. Throughout her final year in the Girl Scouts, she said she learned the importance of time management.

“The mission of Girl Scouts is to build girls of courage, confidence and character. Their mission is to make the world a better place,” said retired U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Angela Salinas, CEO of the Girl Scouts of Southwest Texas. “I’m proud of Madison as one of our Girl Scouts receiving the Gold Award. She had the courage to tackle an issue she cares about, was confident to lead others and has demonstrated the strong character it takes to be an empathetic leader.”

“Being so involved can be tough, but using good time management was the key,” Madison said. “It was definitely worth it in the end.”

Madison has future plans to attend the University of Texas at San Antonio. She wants to major in biology and minor in chemistry to be a nurse like her mother. After she graduates from college, she wants to join the Air Force.

(Editor’s note: The mention of non-federal organizations is simply informational and not intended to imply endorsement by the U.S. Government, the DOD, or the U.S. Air Force.)